AP ranks all-time top 100 basketball teams based on weekly polls
Outside of actually winning a Championship, I have always thought overall Arizona and Illinois were very similar....lately of course AZ is much better and gets the higher recruits, but over time, I have always thought the peaks/valleys similar until again recently.
illynifan34
That's a winner!!
- OH
All this list shows me is that we underperform come tournament time. Cue the Debbie Downer meme.
Foggy Notion
- San Francisco
And Kansas has only three championships in its whole history.
Probably a topic for another thread (though not sure which) but I was thinking about where we'd be sitting currently if Luther hits that 3 when we were tied at 70 with UNC and we go on to win that game. What I came up with was that Bruce would still be Bruce and while there might have been an initial uptick in recruiting I find it hard to believe he could have done THAT much better with a title than he did with a runner-up. What the title would have done would have bought him even more rope than he already had and we keep him for a few more years than we did despite the decline in performance. In this scenario who knows when he actually gets canned and who might have been available that given year so the only thing I know for sure is that Groce wouldn't have ever been here, but who knows who'd be here now.
Long story short I think we'd be in a worse place in 2017 in this alternate timeline, but I think most would call it worth it for a NC in 05.
peace davids
- Colorado
yeah, and I would probably cut off the next "tier" at 19 on this list.
TeamworkOrange
- Chicago
My question as well...
I would assume they completely ignored vacated wins in the calculation because the media typically ignores that teams have ever had to vacate wins. It's sort of sickening as they enable cheating by not publicly shaming schools caught doing so.
illynifan34
That's a winner!!
- OH
Number of wins technically has nothing to do with this list. If you want to ask how they dealt with weeks a team was in a poll in a vacated season, that's not addressed as far as I can tell.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I know this literally makes no logical sense, but I have always been a fan of vacating any concrete thing (NC, Final Four, conference championship, NCAA appearance, etc.) while keeping "wins" unvacated ... it always seemed an odd but appropriate way to bridge what that program deserves and what actually happened/what fans would remember about that era.
SalukiIllini
- Evansville, IN
How is that possible? They won the championship and would have been ranked #1 in all final polls?
See post #7 in this thread.
SalukiIllini
- Evansville, IN
Dictionary definition of Blue Blood:
1. Membership in a noble or socially prominent family.
Dictionary definition of Noble:
1. Possessing outstanding qualities.
Dictionary definition of Prominent:
1. Leading, important, or well known.
Illini have membership in socially prominent families (High Big Ten and Top #11 Total Bball Ranking). Illini are well-known among basketball history, and they possess outstanding qualities (many of which are cited here regularly). And it just so happens that one of the Illini primary colors is BLUE. By these definitions, Illini are Blue Blood.
Illini are looking up at some programs right now. But even Royal Families over time had an occasional screw up or two.
No ring, no blue blood designation.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
Kinda annoyed that Cincinnati is ahead of us at 10, but I guess on paper it really is hard to argue with their stretch in the 50s-60s. But I am very happy to see us ahead of MSU, UM, o$u and the other B1G schools. The pressure is on though, we need to up are game to stay ahead of this pack.
EfremWinters84
- S. Carolina
Looks like we've dropped five spots over the past 6-7 years. At least the two analyses are somewhat consistent! This is the ESPN/Sagarin ranking I've been posting on here (and sharing with friends) over the past 3-4 years.
http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2009/1004/cbe1.pdf
We were pretty high in every decade except the 70s, 90, and 2010-present. If you consider fan support (attendance) and recruiting base (MCAA, NBA, Div 1 talent) Illinois is pretty high.
If you consider there are 330 Div 1 schools and we are 11th, that means we are top tier and close to elite. But we haven't won a Championship and can't recruit like the top 5 programs. So I agree the blue bloods are UK, KU, UNC, Duke, and UCLA. Near blue bloods are Indiana, Louisville, and 6-10.
I think with our history, fan support, recruiting base, and AD/organizational support we can be like an Arizona. Or how we were from 2000-2006.
If you consider there are 330 Div 1 schools and we are 11th, that means we are top tier and close to elite. But we haven't won a Championship and can't recruit like the top 5 programs. So I agree the blue bloods are UK, KU, UNC, Duke, and UCLA. Near blue bloods are Indiana, Louisville, and 6-10.
I think with our history, fan support, recruiting base, and AD/organizational support we can be like an Arizona. Or how we were from 2000-2006.
Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
I am guessing that they did not remove the forfeited games of scUM, since they show that they were in 66% of the polls in the 90s.